How do you deal with Kundalini Awakening symptoms? 


How can you stay grounded when the energy is intense?

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How do you deal with Kundalini Awakening symptoms?  How can you stay grounded when the energy is intense? 


Kundalini Yoga (the true Kundalini Yoga, meaning the yoga created and guided by awakened Kundalini, not the "brand name" Kundalini yoga, which is more accurately hatha yoga with pranayama mixed in) is not a do-it-yourself project.

Expert, experienced guidance is essential and difficult to find. In dealing with challenging symptoms, often there's an element of trial and error in discovering what will work best for your particular energy system. Working with an experienced guide / teacher is invaluable. Reverence, love and devotion to the Divine, including prayer for things to settle down and for the increased capacity to receive Her gifts - these help a great deal.  Fear, anger and impatience always intensify difficult symptoms. Most people don't complain about being in too much bliss or having repeated orgasms, but the negativity, the intense fluctuations of moods and energy - heat, tingling, shaking, psychic phenomenon, etc. - can trigger people's reactivity. True Kundalini Yoga demands learning how to read the Shakti and what it is asking of you in order to come into harmony with the energy.



Kundalini Yoga is the path of surrender to the Divine within -- Thy will be done, not my will. Coming into congruence with the Shakti and sustaining it is a constantly changing dance and can include dietary changes, attitude changes, psychological / characterological transformation, physical activity changes, relationship changes, work changes, living space changes, meditation changes, hatha yoga or pranayama changes, etc., etc. The transformative power of the universe is remaking your mind and body! One has to expect some disruption.  It's like when you see the signs at a bank or a store that's undergoing reconstruction - "Pardon the appearance while we renovate in order to better serve you!" That's what's going on! You're getting a cosmic makeover so your mind / body can better server your Divine Self!

Dealing with the symptoms and getting grounded can be helped literally by the earth.  The earth element is where the Kundalini arises from and where it comes to rest after creating the mind/body.  The smell of rich soil, working in a garden, walking in the woods or at the beach, these can be very balancing.  I've worked with people who have benefited from having a bag of rich soil from the garden shop and being able to smell and touch it, plant something in a pot and take care of it.  Smell is the sense that corresponds to the muladhara chakra and the earth element, so earthy smells can be grounding as are root vegetables - things that grow in the ground.  Also rich foods, ghee, butter, cheeses, milk sweets can help settle the energy.  For some people this extends to eating meat and heavy foods for a period of time.

Being in the ocean, running water, even a shower can be grounding and calm the energy for many people.

Chanting, listening to certain types of music, doing mantra repetition, especially if it is an empowered mantra received from one who has been specifically empowered to give it, sometimes playing a musical instrument can help to ease the energy if it is too intense. For some people sex or sensual massage helps calm the energy and for others it makes it more intense.

Some people need to reduce or stop their practices for a while to ease the energy, including meditation and hatha yoga.  Again, let your experience guide you.

I've worked with individuals who had to take medications to calm things down, including anti-psychotics, in order to remain functional.  When I was helping people who came to Baba's ashram in Ganeshpuri, India and the Shakti was so intense they lost touch with reality and became psychotic, in very, very rare instances physicians would prescribe anti-psychotic medication to help stabilize the individual.  Baba said it was fine, that Shakti took the form of medications to help people maintain their mental balance.  Maintaining balance and integration is extremely important.  In many ways the disciplines of yoga build the strength of the ego to contain greater energies even while we shift our identification away from being bound by the ego.  But the ego as a strong vehicle for consciousness and functioning in the world remains intact.  It becomes the servant rather that the master.



Some people find activities like weaving and knitting very grounding. Others find vigorous aerobic exercise calms the energy for them.  Disciplined eating, exercise, meditation practices, contemplation, living dharmicly - these are all fundamental for reaching the goal of Kundalini unfolding and living in harmony with the workings of the Shakti.

Working with a competent teacher gives a person the support and additional containment necessary to move through this Divinely inspired process of transformation as gracefully as possible.  Kundalini works with our own karmas and blockages created over many lifetimes.  We're responsible for their creation and with Her grace we become free, totally, unimaginably free while living a dharmic life.



Read and study, develop your knowledge and discrimination, these are also grounding.

Some qigong masters can help with energy that is too intense and some acupuncturists can help. Be careful because they can also make it more intense. Most healers, whatever the type - Reiki, healing touch, etc. - work by passing more energy into the person.  For most ordinary conditions that a person needs healing for this is fine.  But with Kundalini challenging a person's abilities to tolerate it or continue their necessary work, etc., then just dumping more energy into their system will only make it worse.  It is much rarer to find an energy worker who can, in a sense, siphon off excess energy, help it go to ground.  I often need to do that with people who come to me for consultations and have too much energy running.  Grounding exercises like those done in bioenergetics therapy are also helpful.  These can include working on the soles of the feet, strengthening contact with the ground, rubbing the soles of the feet on the ground or floor while bare foot, stomping, running bare foot on the beach or on the grass, etc., doing intense physical work, even household chores can be grounding.  At times people have to stop meditating because it provokes too much energy, so they can use moving meditation - focusing on the body and mindfulness while taking care of everyday tasks like the laundry, cleaning the bathroom, etc.  These are all just as spiritual as sitting with one's eyes closed for meditation.  Kundalini dissolves the boundary between what is a "spiritual" practice and what is the rest of life.  It's all practice.  You're either practicing the right understanding and doing things with all the consciousness, love, compassion, patience, kindness and discipline that you can or you're indulging the mind and it's unconscious drives.  It's your choice and the consequences make up your karma.

For some people hatha yoga done gently can be very helpful.  You might want to avoid vigorous hatha yoga or pranayama, including the brand name kundalini yoga, when things are intense.  Let your experience guide you.